Wednesday, June 08, 2016

Happy Release Day to Tara Lain

We are always thrilled to welcome Tara Lain to Sinfully. Today she has popped in to give us ten fun facts about her latest release Beauty, Inc.

Ten Fun Facts About BEAUTY, INC.

Hi! I’m Tara Lain, I write The Beautiful Boys of Romance, and I’m happy to be here at Sinfully today to introduce my new contemporary fantasy romance, BEAUTY, INC. I thought I’d share some fun facts about the new book.

Yes, it is based on Beauty and the Beast – loosely. It’s a contemporary gay romance set in the high-powered cosmetics industry – and it has a fairy tale theme.

It features my first ugly hero. I’ve had heroes who thought they weren’t attractive – like Rodney in Fire Balls – but Magnus Strong is severely scarred and no one knows why he doesn’t have plastic surgery.

It’s the first book I’ve ever set, even partly, in Oregon. Most of the story, however, takes place in New York City and in Brooklyn where I’ve set many books.

Beauty and the Beast (French: La Belle et la Bête) is a traditional fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins.

At the same time, the origins of the story are thought to be as old as 4000 years!

For a number of years, I’ve used some great skin care that has no preservatives or parabens and has a special packaging technique that keeps the creams fresh. I used this idea as some of the basis for Belle’s new product in BEAUTY, INC.

Like Belle’s friend Judy in the story, I’ve had cancer. Not breast cancer, but I still know a lot about it. When I had cancer, I had to really dig to get the newest information on treatments and protocols to prevent recurrence and I would have loved to have had a B. Strong Center like I created for the book.

I completely made up Belle’s apartment building in Brooklyn – but don’t I wish it existed!!

There are 3 books in The Pennymaker Tales, each based on a different fairy tale. As a result, there are no continuing characters from story to story – except one. Mr. Pennymaker plays a role in every book –almost magical and very mysterious.

I never quite know what to call The Pennymaker Tales. Contemporary fantasies? Fairy tale romances? While the stories are a bit over-the-top and very happy ultimately, so are many romances. I think these stories could happen. Don’t you?

Thank you so much for stopping by!! If you’d like to win your choice of one of the other two Pennymaker Tales, Sinders and Ash or Driven Snow, be sure to enter!

Beauty, Inc.

(Pennymaker Tales #3)

Tara Lain

Synopsis

Is beauty only skin deep?

Chemist Dr. Robert “Belle” Belleterre loves flowers, green trees, his best friend Judy, and “his baby:” the new face cream he developed to help put his father’s small cosmetics company on the map. Sadly he gets no help from his alcoholic, gambling-addicted father, who loses Belle in a poker game to Magnus Strong, the CEO of Beauty, Inc., the largest American cosmetics company—a man infamous for his scarred ugliness.

Belle finds himself uprooted from his home, living in a wildly crazy apartment in New York owned by Mr. Pennymaker, and completely unprepared for his mad attraction to the charismatic Strong. Feeling like a traitor, Belle fights his passion only to see more and more of the goodness and humility hidden by Strong’s ugly face. But when Belle’s family starts manipulating his life again, the odds turn against happiness for beautiful Belle and his beloved beast.

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Excerpt

“Oh yes. She has her apartment on the ground floor. Mr. Strong thought it would be best if she didn’t have to climb too many stairs while she’s being treated.”

Belle just stared. He felt the tears welling in his eyes but couldn’t stop them. Limb by limb, he collapsed to the floor like an old plastic bag. His own father hadn’t even paid attention, and Magnus Strong put Judy on the ground floor to keep her from having to climb stairs.

Mr. P closed the door and flopped down beside him. “So, my dear, what seems to be the trouble?”

Belle shook his head and snuffled.

“Try again.”

“I did a really bad thing.”

“What might that have been, my dear?”

He sniffed. “I humped my boss.”

“Hmm. Humped. I’m failing to get a mental image.”

Belle sighed. “It’s probably just as well. I got overzealous and threw myself on Magnus Strong. That might have been okay, but then I—” He dropped his face in his hand. “Oh God.”

“I’m starting to get an image. Continue.”

He popped his head up. “I kissed him, okay? And then, as if that wasn’t the stupidest thing ever done since W said “mission accomplished,” I managed to get my penis in contact with his and—humped. Now do you get the picture?”

Mr. P clapped his hands. “Perfect.”

“Oh, so far from perfect.” He fell back against the large Asian throw rug. “Why did I do it? Why?”

“Excellent question. Why did you do it?”

“He turns me on.”

“What?”

Belle sat up, in his best Frankenstein’s monster imitation. “He turns me on like a large neon light.”

“Because he helped your friend?”

“Way before he helped Judy. Before he helped me, in fact.”

Mr. P smiled. “So you acknowledge that he’s helped you?”

“Oh hell, Mr. P, I’m so confused. I mean, getting won in a poker game doesn’t exactly kick a relationship off on a sterling foot. Plus, that was after he seemed to be stalking me. I assumed he was trying to get me here to—you know—screw me instead of my father.”

“Ah, I see. And now you’ve thrown at him the very thing you assumed he wanted—and he refused it.”

“In a word—yes. I don’t know what to think.”

“There’s only one answer, my dear. Outside the box.”

Meet Tara Lain

Tara Lain writes the Beautiful Boys of Romance in LGBT erotic romance novels that star her unique, charismatic heroes. Her first novel was published in January of 2011 and she’s now somewhere around book 23. Her best-selling novels have garnered awards for Best Series, Best Contemporary Romance, Best Ménage, Best LGBT Romance, Best Gay Characters, and Tara has been named Best Writer of the Year in the LRC Awards. In her other job, Tara owns an advertising and public relations firm. She often does workshops on both author promotion and writing craft. She lives with her soul-mate husband and her soul-mate dog in Laguna Beach, California, a pretty seaside town where she sets a lot of her books. Passionate about diversity, justice, and new experiences, Tara says on her tombstone it will say “Yes”!

Hey Anonymous, thank you so much. Each of these books is a separate fairy tale, so only one character appears in every story (Mr. Pennymaker) and he plays a unique role in each book. There truly is no connection between them so you can actually start on book 3 -- but i hope you love Sinders! : )

Hi Tara,Congrats on the new release!To be honest, I'm not sold on the fairytale retelling aspect but I read so many great things about your books that I'll be really happy to get the chance to change my mind thanks to your works ;-)

Hi Elle -- Thank you so much! I have many books that aren't fairy tales, of course. Most in fact, but the Pennymaker Tales, while a bit larger than life, are still contemporary romances, so you might try them. : )

I haven't read any of the books in this series yet but I've read just about everything else you've written and there isn't a bad book in the bunch. My Tara Lain books are always good for rereads and comfort reads. :-)